News

(Unterschleissheim, Germany) For many years Mr. Hans Zerbel has been commissioned by the Bundesdruckerei (official printers of the stamp issues of the German Federal Republic) and, at a later moment, by the official German Post. He had an important task: to answer the question whether a stamp showing a deviation must be qualified as a real (recurrent) plate flaw or just an accidental divergence. On 1 March 2017 Mr. Zerbel has finished his activities in this field, which has created an information vacuum for collectors, researchers and philatelic publishers. Because at the present time it is not possible to get a reliably answer to the question: ‘Plate flaw or one-time divergence?’For catalogue publishers like MICHEL this is a nuisance; they want to offer information that is as reliable as possible. When in doubt, they will refrain from mentioning or cataloguing possible plate errors.The editors of the renowned MICHEL catalogues, not wanting to sit idly, are making a special appeal now: they wish to establish a special study group ‘German Federal Republic Plate Flaws’. They therefore invite collectors, experts and researchers to join such a research group.MICHEL is prepared the lead in facilitating a network of persons interested in establishing such a group. The editors therefore invite everybody who wants to contribute to the new study group to contact the publisher of the MICHEL catalogues, Schwaneberger Verlag, be it as a normal member or even as coordinator for the study group. The coordinator will have the task of reporting the results of the study group to the MICHEL editors, who will ultimately evaluate these results.Are you interested? Then please contact Schwaneberger Verlag GmbH, Mrs. M. Baumann, Ohmstraße 1, 85716 Unterschleißheim (Germany). You can also send an email message: germany1@michel.de.